The Alolan Inquiry Part 1 MeleMele
by SevenDePiques
Summary: As a 27 year old bartender from Hoenn, Elijah has never had his own pokemon. That doesn't stop him from boarding a plane and flying to Alola when his fiance Cyrus goes missing. With the help of his very first pokemon, Elijah sets off on the island challenge to find out what happened to his beloved.
1. Chapter 1

When Elijah woke to to his alarm in the morning that was strange. It buzzed, loud and shrill, but he let it go for a while as he stared at the ceiling. Then, limbs still heavy from sleep he switched off the alarm and checked his phone. No missed calls.

For the past month his fiance had been off in the Alola region, apparently criminal activity was flaring up there. As a reporter, Cyrus couldn't just let that slide and so off to Alola he'd flown. It was a little less than a twelve hour difference between Alola and Hoenn so every evening before he went to bed, Cyrus would call Elijah to wake him up. But today it hadn't happened.

Elijah brushed it off, Cyrus was probably just busy. Things could get hectic, one missed phone call didn't mean a thing.

By evening, it wasn't just one missed phone call. There were no texts, no messages, no calls from the hotel room. Nothing.

The next morning there wasn't a call either.

With his gut telling him something was wrong, Elijah called the hotel.

"The Sunshine Inn!" answered a chipper voice on the other end.

"Hello," said Elijah, "I'm calling about one of your guests. He's my fiance and I was worried about him. Cyril Ryle, he's in room 3."

"No," said the voice, "I'm afraid he left two days ago and just hasn't been back. I shouldn't worry though, Alola is very safe."

"Oh," said Elijah, "thank you."

After he ended the call, he went and threw up in the toilet. Half a world away and his fiance was missing, half a world away and the front desk at the hotel said 'Alola was very safe'. Half a world away, Elijah could do nothing. After he realized that, there was only one option.

He called work and told them he was taking a leave of absence for personal reasons. They didn't like it, but he only worked part time, and there was no way he could give them two weeks notice for this. Then he called his aunt, told her he was coming to visit to 'see the sights' and booked a plane ticket.

Fortunately for everyone involved, the plane ride was uneventful. Terrified of flying, Elijah did his best to sleep through most of the trip. He managed it in fits and starts, aided by the chatter of the old man in the seat next to him, who was dying to tell Elijah all about his grandchildren, his pokemon, and why Alola was the absolute best place to raise children. By the time the plane landed, Elijah's legs were cramped, his stomach was upset and he was of the firm opinion that he would be taking a boat back to Hoenn, even if it took him three months.

As he disembarked, his aunt ran across the pavement to greet him. She swept him into a hug, only coming up to his chest and then stepped back.

"Look at you!" she said, "I never thought I'd see you in an airport."

Elijah smiled ruefully, "Well, Auntie, I'm full of surprises."

She laughed at that, with a smile so wide it caused her eyes to almost disappear. "I'm happy to hear that! But you must be hungry, come you can tell me all about your planned visit in the car once we get your bags."

In the cramped car, that smelled like cigarette smoke, Elijah told his aunt he planned to visit every part of Alola he could get to.

"I just don't want to miss anything," he said.

His aunt, deftly swerving around a man riding a tauros said, "what a wonderful idea! I can't wait to see the pokemon you brought with you. When you were just a tyke we thought you never would become a trainer."

That was true enough, Elijah had never had a knack for pokemon. He liked them well enough, but he didn't see the need to travel around beating the stuffing out of other people for fun. He'd beaten a few people for money when he was younger, but you didn't need a pokemon to do that.

"I still haven't," he admitted, "I guess I didn't think of that."

His aunt shook her head as they drove through lush tropical vegetation and by strange pokemon Elijah had never seen. "Well, you're not going to make much headway like that."

She slapped the steering wheel with her palm as if she had an epiphany. "You're a little old, but there's something around here called the island trial. Most youngsters do it when they get old enough to travel on their own. Gets you to places you could never be otherwise. Perhaps you could try that, I don't think there's an official age limit so it shouldn't be a problem."

Elijah opened his mouth to protest and then close it again. She was right, even if he was twenty seven it was never too late to learn. Besides, island folk were supposed to be famous for their hospitality. Instead, he said, somewhat lamely, "I wouldn't know where to begin."

His aunt sucked her teeth, and turned sharply into the driveway before throwing the car in park. "You let me worry about that. We're going to get you fed, and then you're going to go to bed. It's late here, and you can't be exploring if your body thinks it's half a world away."

There was really no arguing with his aunt, so Elijah got out of the car, brought his bags in, and set about clearing out the fridge. It was an impossible task, empty margarine containers were stuffed with left overs, even the freezer was bursting at the seams, and every time he thought he was finished, his aunt brought over another place. Dirty rice, curried goat, green beans and jerk chicken. Soup with some unidentifiable Alolan vegetables, fruit that he better eat before it went off and cups and cups of tea.

By the time he managed to persuade his aunt that yes, he'd eaten enough, and no he wasn't just being polite, and he was certain he couldn't manage another thing, Elijah felt like a snorlax after it'd woken up. And much like a snorlax just after it had woken up, when he was done eating Elijah waddled to bed. He didn't even have the energy to check his phone before he slipped into a deep dreamless sleep, but when he woke up, there were still no missed calls.


	2. Chapter 2

It was his aunt who woke him up. At far too early in the morning, his aunt marched into the room and threw open the curtains. Elijah groaned, and threw an arm over his face, he was not a morning person.

"Time to get up," his aunt stood by the window, silhouetted with her hands on her hips. "I talked to the professor and he said he'll come down from Iki Town to talk to you about your first pokemon. You might as well go for a bit of a walk and get a feel for the island, I'm going out to the market. Miss. Akamu from up the road has given you a backpack and some supplies her daughter left at home when she started her trial. Apparently, she has a tendency to over pack."

"Got it," said Elijah, "I'll be up in a few minutes."

He waited until his aunt had left the room before he sat up. What she had said was slowly filtering in. This was really happening, the professor, a pokemon, supplies. Elijah had expected far more resistance at the start of his journey, but it seemed everybody was on board with it.

When he left for his walk, he quickly figured out why. Everyone he passed was either with a pokemon or had at least one pokeball tucked about their person. Even children who would never be given a pokemon of their own other places had them. It was bizarre, back in Lilycove, there were at least a handful of people who never had a pokemon. Uncommon perhaps, but not unheard of.

Everyone he passed either waved or shouted 'ALOLA!' at him and despite the fact that it was morning, Elijah found that he was starting to enjoy his walk. He was exploring up a hill when a wave of guilt washed over him. How on earth could he be enjoying this? Cyrus was still missing, and his hotel was right here on this island, Elijah should be there, looking around, gathering clues.

He turned to head back, when from the bushes he heard a hissing noise. A long pokemon with a yellow stripe down its back emerged from underneath. It looked a lot like a linoone if someone had given the poor thing a bear trap for a mouth. It lunged at him, and Elijah took a step back. Sensing its victory, the pokemon advanced, snarling.

Elijah briefly considered the pros and cons of punting this small fuzzy ball of hatred. It was likely bad form, but he didn't particularly want to see how much of his leg it could remove with one bite. Still, what other option was there?

He pulled his leg back before a raucous series of sounds announced the arrival of three other pokemon. They jumped in front of Elijah.

There was a round bird with large eyes that puffed up and opened its beak menacingly, a blue flippered thing that reminded him of a spheal that had lost a great deal of weight and joined a circus, and a black and red cat that charged out in front, hissing and spitting.

At the new challengers, the yellow striped pokemon hissed once more before disappearing into the bush. Pleased with their success, the three pokemon turned to Elijah. Not a single one of them came past his knees so he crouched down. "Thank you," he said. "Although..."

"Hey there, cousin!" A voice called out behind him.

Elijah turned around, preparing for an unexpected family reunion, but instead he was greeted by a trim looking man wearing an open lab coat that showed off his abs. Confused, he managed, "hello."

The man paused, and then grinned, "You must be Olivia's nephew! Elijah right? I'm Professor Kukui, I was just about to stop by your house! But these three little fellows decided there was a battle to be fought. You okay? It looked like you were under attack!"

Elijah relaxed slightly, "Oh yeah. Just some little fighty thing from under the bushes there. Had teeth like you wouldn't believe..."

He paused, these things might be fairly common on the islands. Kului however, didn't seem to notice, he was just nodding along, his smile undiminished. "That was a yungoos, they're all over the place. Never mind that though. Welcome to Alola! The pokemon paradise! We here do a lot with our pokemon, but I'm sure you've noticed. Let me introduce you to the pokemon who helped you out just now."

The pokemon in question clustered around Kukui's feet. "There's rowlet, the grass type pokemon."

He gestured to the bird, which cooed and preened itself at mention of its name.

"Then there's popplio, the water type pokemon."

This was the thing that looked like a spheal. It clapped its front flippers together and jumped in the air. Kukui laughed, "He's a bit of a performer. Our last pokemon is litten, a fire type."

The cat, unlike the others was not paying attention. During Kukui's speech it had wandered to the side of the trail and stuck its face into the bush where the yungoos had disappeared. Kukui went on like he hadn't noticed. "Y'see the fact of the matter is, one of these pokemon was going to become your first partner! We give 'em to the kids who haven't got one of their own by the time they start their trials. Your aunt said you'd never had a pokemon before but it's never to early to get your first! So which one would you like to keep as your partner?"

Elijah considered it carefully. Popplio would have to be kept in its ball most of the time, it wasn't suited for moving about on land with any speed. Rowlet was very cute, and having a bird could be useful but it seemed like it was more interested in keeping itself looking presentable than actually engaging in battle. The litten though... it had been at the front, and had clearly been prepared to take the first move. That was the sort of pokemon he needed.

"I'd like litten please," Elijah said at last.

Kukui nodded, "Good choice! It may spit fire but its one cool cat!"

The professor laughed a little at his own joke as he scooped up litten and handed him to Elijah. Far from being put out, the little thing purred mightily as Elijah stroked its head and licked his arm.

"You should give him a nickname," said Kukui, "since it's your first one."

Elijah idly scratched the litten behind the ears.

"How about Penny?" he asked the little cat. It mewed in response, before clawing its way up his shirt and to his shoulder, where it perched like an unorthodox chatot.

"Can you say pieces of eight?" Elijah asked him. Penny purred and licked his ear.

"I'll take that as a no."

Kukui laughed. The professor was no doubt a jolly and easy going sort. "Looks like you two will get on famously. Here's Penny's pokeball. Now we should head up to Iki Town and get you to meet the kahuna, little Penny here is technically a gift from him so we should say thank you!"

As they walked towards the town, Kukui chattered away, popplio and rowlet following a few steps behind. Kahunas Elijah was told, were the strongest trainers on an island. They were in charge of sorting out problems and dealing with crimes. Elijah assumed they were sort of like a mayor, but of an island instead of just a city. Kukui also talked at length about his work. He was interested in pokemon moves and the power pokemon could unleash. He had a great deal to say about it. Most of it went right over Elijah's head but he nodded along.

It was a nice enough way to pass the time on the walk. Penny, for his part managed to stay on Elijah's shoulder though his head snapped towards every new sound. Elijah was glad to see that he wasn't rash enough to go barreling off at the first interesting thing that caught his attention. That would have meant trouble.

Iki Town turned out to be at a plateau halfway up the hill, before it got significantly steeper and covered in a thick forest. But before he and the professor could enter it, a boy came running down the path. His skin was several shades lighter than Elijah's and similar to Kukui's which meant, Elijah assumed, he was an Alola native.

"Hey, hey!" he called out, coming to a breathless stop in front of them. "I couldn't wait for us to pick our pokemon together so I came to find you myself! What pokemon are you going to..."

The boy's eyes went wide as he caught sight of Penny. "Woah! Your litten is so cool! You got to pick already?"

Kukui cleared his throat, "Sorry Hau. Elijah here was attacked on the way up, and the pokemon rushed to protect him, so I thought he better pick then and there."

"Eh?" Hau looked lost for a moment and then he smiled, "I guess it was just fate for them to meet then!"

Elijah smiled, this boy was a firecracker. He didn't even come up to Elijah's chest, but he had more energy then Elijah had had in his entire life. Kukui was grinning too, "You can choose one of the other ones, Hau."

Hau, didn't even hesitate, he bent over planting his hands on his bright orange shorts and said, "I pick you rowlet! I decided long ago I wanted to go on an adventure with you!"

Rowlet whistled, and flapped its wings happily as Hau picked it up.

"Alola! You and I are going to be best friends!" he said.

With a grin that threatened to split his face in half, Hau turned to Elijah. "We should have a battle now that we both have pokemon! What do you say?"

Elijah shrugged, "Sure."

In any other competition he would have felt bad fighting a child, but he'd seen enough pokemon battles to know that age didn't matter. "You ready Penny?"

Penny looked rowlet up and down, and stretched, before moving to the edge of Elijah's shoulder to hop down. Upon realizing it was almost six feet from the ground, it balked for a moment before it leaped down.

"I could have helped you, you know," Elijah told it.

Penny flicked his tail dismissively, and squared up with Hau's rowlet.

"Ready?!" shouted Kukui, "begin!"

Rowlet got the first hit, throwing leaves that made up some of its plumage at Penny. The litten didn't seemed bothered by this, and Elijah felt more than a little bad realizing he had the type advantage.

"Penny," he said, "Uh... fire."

Penny yowled at him, before jumping aside to avoid the next attack and spitting the tiniest fire ball. It wasn't much but it was all it took to deal some serious damage. The rowlet's plumage lit up like a Christmas tree, but went out as the bird fluffed its plumage and covered itself in dust. In the end it was more than a little singed but still looked willing to fight.

"Tackle rowlet!" shouted Hau, "show Penny how serious we are."

Penny tried to dodge out of the way, but rowlet caught his back leg and sent him sprawling into the dirt.

"Scratch it before it gets away!" said Elijah. He was getting into this. Battling pokemon was way more fun than watching it.

Penny twisted, without bothering to find his feet and dragged his claws down rowlet. The bird let out a squawk and fell to the ground. Penny got up, preparing another attack when Elijah said, "I think we're done."

Hau nodded, "You did a good job rowlet! Lets heal you up. Penny too."

A few potions later, both pokemon were feeling fighting fit and were halfheartedly squabbling, as Penny lorded his victory over his opponent.

"Don't be obnoxious," Elijah told him, "you had type advantage."

For a brief moment, Penny looked a little sheepish before he yawned and began to clean himself industriously.

"That was a good first battle!" Kukui said, "but we should return those two to their pokeballs and go into town now."

"And oh," he put a hand on Elijah's shoulder, "that move you used was called ember."

Elijah felt his ears go hot. "Thanks for telling me."


	3. Chapter 3

With the pokemon back in their balls, the trio entered Iki town. Hau ran off, yelling over his shoulder he was going to show his mum his new pokemon, while Kukui looked around; seeming, for once, to be at least a little put out.

"It seems like the kahuna isn't here. Probably a problem he had to deal with." he said. "Why don't you take a walk up that path to the to the ruins of the Tapu? The tapu's are pokemon who are guardian deities of each island and this town is where we worship Tapu Koko the guardian of Melemele island. The kahuna might be up there, paying his respects. I'll stay here in case he comes back."

"Sounds good," said Elijah.

He strode through the town, where the houses seemed to be arranged in a circle around a roughly oval platform. It looked a bit like a stadium space. Behind that was trail that led up the hill and presumably up to the ruins of the tapu.

The climb was tough, even for Elijah who kept in shape at the gym. He stopped half way up to catch his breath by one of the many strange stone statues, cursing his poor decision to wear jeans in this sweltering heat.

Ahead of him he caught sight of a girl dressed all in white with platinum hair. Her delicate dress and dainty shoes marked her as completely unsuited to be wandering about in the wilderness. Even stranger was a large duffel bag she had slung across her shoulder. It jerked aggressively as she walked, and she stopped to chastise whatever was inside. Then she disappeared around a bend in the trail.

Elijah figured she was probably a tourist and gave her little further thought as he tried to get his heart rate back to something reasonable. A few minutes later, he had managed to get his breathing under control and resumed his hike. Luckily, it wasn't much further to the top. Ahead of him, he heard a commotion and quickened his pace.

As the trees parted, a rickety plank bridge came into view. The girl in white stood in front of it, yelling at something that was being attacked by spearows. She must have caught sight of Elijah out of the corner of her eye because she turned to him.

"Please," she said, "you have to help Nebby! I... I can't!"

Elijah nodded and ran out onto the bridge. He was pleased to find it was sturdy under his feet. The spearows were attacking a small round pokemon that looked like a bit of the night sky, who must have been Nebby. But when he stepped onto the bridge, one of the birds detached itself from the mob and flew at him. Elijah braced himself, preparing to knock the bird out of the sky, when Penny burst from his pokeball launching himself at the bird.

Right. This was the way it was done.

"Scratch only!" yelled Elijah, "we don't want to burn this thing."

Penny's appearance caught the spearow by surprise and it was unable to veer away before the litten got his claws down beneath the feathers and pulled it to the ground, landing hard. Penny curled into a ball and bit down on the bird's neck. Behind him, the girl shrieked. Elijah didn't have the time to explain that this is what predatory pokemon did, instead he rushed past Penny towards the rest of the flock.

The brief battle seemed to destabilize the bridge, but Elijah couldn't care about that now. He reached Nebby and threw himself over the small pokemon, shielding it with his body.

The spearows dive bombed him, raking their claws across his back. Nebby was shaking under him, more and more violently. Then with a shriek it unleashed a great wave of power. Elijah didn't have time to see what this did to the birds because the bridge went out from under him and he was falling.

He yelled, holding Nebby tight in his arms, half to protect it, half to stop himself from soiling his jeans. Then there was the smell of ozone and a strange cry, and Elijah was no longer falling. A strange black and yellow pokemon, with what looked like shields on each of its arm had scooped the pair out of the sky. It flew them to cliff edge and deposited them next to the girl.

Penny was there waiting, having wisely moved off the bridge. The spearow he had caught was no where to be seen, but Elijah's attention was fixed on the pokemon that had saved them. It had strange white markings on its face, and what looked to be orange feathers or hair on its head, and orange legs of some kind. It stared down Elijah and the girl, and Elijah had no doubt in his mind that this was Tapu Koko. But before he could ask if the tapu could help him, it gave a cry and flew away on a burst of electricity.

Once the tapu was gone, the girl ran over to Nebby and hugged it. "Thank goodness! You tried using your power again didn't you? Oh, Nebby. You know what happened last time. You couldn't move for ages after that."

Nebby replied in something Elijah could only describe as the sound of sparkles, it nuzzled the girl briefly before squirming out of her arms and going over to a glittering stone on the ground.

"What is that?" asked the girl as Nebby brought it over to her. She bent down to have a look at it. "It's a sparkling stone... it feels almost warm somehow."

Elijah decided it was time he head back down the mountain. He didn't want to linger around this girl for too long and make her uncomfortable. Besides, if the kahuna had been at the ruins, the professor needed to be told the bridge was now out.

"Come on, Penny," he said.

"Oh wait!" said the girl, "I'm sorry! I should have thanked you earlier. I'm so grateful to you helping us out in a dangerous spot."

"Oh," said Elijah, "it was no problem."

The girl shook her head, "No, no it was brave of you! I'm.. I'm Lillie. And this..."

She held out her hand with the stone nestled in her palm, "This must be for you."

"Thank you," said Elijah as he took it from her. She had been right, the stone did feel strangely warm. He slipped it into his pocket, he'd have to spend some time examining it later.

Lillie gripped the strap of her duffel bag tightly as she watched Elijah with bright green eyes. "Please, don't tell anyone about this, I mean about seeing Nebby. It's a secret okay?"

Elijah nodded and Lillie relaxed a little. "Come on Nebby get back in the bag, we have to go back now."

"Oh!" she turned back to Elijah as Nebby floated itself gently into the bag. "I hope it's not too much trouble... if I asked..."

She paused, working up her courage. "If I asked ifyoucouldwalkusbacktotown."

Her words came out in a rush, as if she was scared to ask or scared of what the answer might be.

"I can do that," Elijah said. "I was heading back that way anyways, to tell them about the bridge."

Elijah and Lillie walked back in silence. Kukui was standing on the platform in the middle of town when they arrived. He turned when he heard Penny, who decided to hone his hunting skills on a leaf. "Oh! Elijah! You met Lillie already, huh? She's my assistant."

The professor seemed very proud of this fact. Lillie on the other hand seemed to be more than a little embarrassed by this fact. She climbed up the stairs on the platform, and the Kukui turned to her. "I thought you were with the kahuna, where is he?"

"Oh, um," Lillie started. Elijah noticed she always talked like she was expecting to get into trouble. He wondered what happened to make her like that. "He said there was something to attend to so he left town on his own."

So he wasn't trapped in the ruins on the other side of the broken bridge. That was a relief at least. Elijah listened as Lillie relayed her journey up to the ruins, the impromptu rescue and the bridge failure.

"That's how you met Elijah, huh?" Kukui laughed, "He just got to Alola yesterday and it seems he's already making an impression. You can help him find his way around, yeah, Lillie?"

"Oh yes," said Lillie, she turned to Elijah "I didn't realize you were one of the professor's acquaintances. It's nice to meet you."

"Likewise," said Elijah.

Behind Kukui and Lillie a large man strolled into the town. He wore shorts and a t-shirt under a bright yellow robe. Despite being old enough to have white hair, he looked hale, hearty, and inexplicably filled with enthusiasm. "Kukui!" he called out, "Have I missed something?"

"Kahuna Hala! Have you anything?!" Kukui waved him over. "Just wait until I tell you!"

It was Professor Kukui's turn to relay the story of Elijah's brave rescue of Nebby. Elijah listened as it was rehashed again, trying not to shrink under the appraising gaze of the kahuna. Despite being over a foot taller than the man, Elijah felt like Hala could steam roll him.

When Kukui was done, Hala grinned. "So, Elijah, you met the tapu?"

Elijah nodded, not quite sure how to address the man.

Hala laughed, a hearty sound that seemed to fill the space. "Despite being said to protect us, Tapu Koko is a fickle creature. It must have seen something in you!"

He clapped Elijah on the back. "It's settled then! You'll come to the festival tomorrow. We have cause to celebrate after all don't we Kukui? We have such a kind new trainer in our midst!"

The next few hours were a blur. Elijah thanked the kahuna for Penny, and the kahuna welcomed him to Alola. Then, he was introduced to everyone who lived in the town. It was a small one, no more than fifty people but Elijah lost track as faces slid into each other. He was intensely grateful, therefore, when Hau showed up and chastised his tutu. Elijah took it to mean grandfather but he couldn't be sure.

Before sending him back to his aunt's house for the evening. The professor and the kahuna made Elijah promise to come to the festival. Then, the kahuna took the stone from Elijah, promising to return it the next day.


End file.
